Smartly.io sells majority ownership stake for $223M

Smartly.io

Helsinky-based Smartly.io is one of Finland’s most successful startups, this year their platform will see over $2.7B USD move through it. Started in 2013, some might say Smartly.io isn’t really a startup any more, they’ve become a market leader in social advertising automation.

Okay wait, stop this train. I know what you’re thinking – what the heck is social advertising automation? I’ll try to do this in a sentence, it allows you to seamlessly create both the ads and the campaigns, and then optimizes them across different social networks, automatically.

Smartly.io solution

Back to the story here…today Smartly.io announced they sold a majority stake, worth upwards of $223M USD to a private equity firm Providence Equity Partners. What’s very interesting about this deal is that to-date Smartly.io has only raised $22.8M which means the founders, employees and investors are probably very happy campers right now.

Of course, for Smartly.io – this is only a step along the way, they have big plans for next year which their CEO discussed more with the Wall Street Journal today.

Next year, the company will expand its offerings to include services for YouTube,          Pinterest,         Twitter        and Snapchat, according to Kristo Ovaska, co-founder and chief executive of Smartly.io.

“There  is a very clear need for our customers to utilize creative and media  optimization capabilities across these platforms,” Mr. Ovaska said.  “We’re just getting started there.”

Smartly.io also plans to  accelerate its expansion into the U.S., where it has about 100  employees, Mr. Ovaska said. In addition, it plans to work with larger  marketers, which currently include          Walmart Inc.        and          Under Armour Inc.      

“The changes in consumer behavior, moving from desktop to  mobile, and then from mobile to mobile-first formats such as Stories,  has been rapid,” Mr. Ovaska said.(Source – Wall Street Journal)

Huge congrats to Kristo and team. Someone suggested yesterday that I bring my interview series back to life…if I do Kristo will be high on my list. I look forward to following along with the adventure as Smartly.io charges ahead!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton